Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better for the Military
Baker Spring /
As your mother probably told you (many times), bigger isn’t necessarily better. And yet that’s too often the approach the military uses to determine whether it’s succeeding in its mission.
When members of the American defense establishment try to answer former New York City Mayor Ed Koch’s famous question, “How am I doing?” they traditionally begin by measuring raw industrial output. How many weapons and platforms have been repaired? How many tons of matériel have been moved? How many hours of services were provided? How many replacement parts were acquired? And so forth.
Of course, this method for measuring success means military leaders too often focus on getting a few big projects done, when it may be more important to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. After all, you don’t need an F-15 if you’re only going across town. And while many military missions do require complex weapons systems, many if not most rely on smaller groupings manned by skilled personnel.